People Magazine has been running exclusives from their interview with Ione Skye this week. She spoke to them as promotion for her memoir, Say Everything. As I said, Ione was one of the coolest girls of the 1990s – tons of famous friends, relationships with famous musicians, relationship dramas and more. If anything, Ione’s dramas were a lot quieter at the time, but I’m glad she’s opening up nowadays and she sounds pretty well-adjusted, all things considered. Well, in the 1980s, she was in a relationship with Anthony Kiedis. She was 16 years old at the time (she was born in 1970) and Kiedis was 24. In her memoir and in this People interview, she talks about some of the crazy sh-t that went down:
Actress Ione Skye, 54, is opening up about her relationship with Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis, who she started dating when she was 16 and the rocker was 24 in her new memoir Say Everything. Skye tells PEOPLE that their relationship is actually what inspired her to tell her life story in the first place.
“These girls on TikTok were saying things like, ‘How could my mom let me be with Anthony?'” she says of their relationship being dissected on social media in recent years. “And I sort of clapped back, not in an aggressive way, but I was like, ‘Well, my mom was really upset that I was with a rockstar like Anthony Kiedis.’ And I don’t know, I kind of started feeling like I was able to tell my side of the story, and I had a lot to tell,” she says, of deciding to write Say Everything, which she says was a three-year endeavor.
In her memoir, she writes of her and Kiedis’ romance, which was complicated by the rocker’s heroin addiction. She also writes that when she was 17, they became pregnant and decided not to keep the child. She says the decision was a painful one.
“I was the type of girl who’d wanted a baby since I was a baby, who used to fantasize about finding a swaddled infant on my doorstep or catching a flying ghost baby with a butterfly net … But fantasizing was different from seeing,” she writes in the book. “I couldn’t see having a baby at this point.”
She added that she blamed herself for not being more careful but has no regrets over the decision. “I was taking care of myself now, making a choice that felt good and important for my future,” she writes. “I would not have a baby at 17, with someone who didn’t want to be a dad, wouldn’t commit to me and had anger issues. Not to mention the heroin.”
Skye tells PEOPLE that she was nervous about how open she was in the book, but decided it was worth it to tell the full truth about her life. That includes having affairs while she was married to Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz, exploring her bisexuality, doing drugs and eventually settling into a happy marriage with rocker Ben Lee, with whom she shares a 15-year-old daughter.
Skye says while some people she wrote about in the book had a chance to read it, she didn’t talk to Kiedis. “I stay in touch with his mother, but not with him,” she says. “I’m very curious about what he’ll think — he and my father. They’re the ones I’m most nerve-wracked about. But everyone who has read it says it’s a good read.”
Skye’s dad is ‘Mellow Yellow’ singer Donovan, and she also writes of their chilly relationship when she was a child, as well as how they’ve since become close.
“She added that she blamed herself for not being more careful” – SHE WAS 17!! She was with a 25 year old heroin addict! Kiedis absolutely deserves more sh-t for his decades of BS when it comes to girls and women. He absolutely prefers very young women, and I suspect he would think nothing of dating a teenager today. This is absolutely savage too: “I stay in touch with his mother, but not with him.” It just occurred to me – Ione is now the mother of a 16-year-old daughter. That must have influenced her decision to write about her tumultuous love life at that age too, and it influenced how she looks back at herself at that age.
Photos courtesy of Getty, Avalon Red, Cover Images.
- BEN LEE AND IONE SKYE ATTENDING DAY 2 OF THE 2007 MERCEDES-BENZ FASHION WEEK FALL COLLECTION AT SMASHBOX STUDIOS. CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA. 19 MARCH 2007. PICTURE / CPA NO USA BEN LEE AND IONE SKYE,Image: 546163275, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: USA OUT – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Photoshot – sales@photoshot.com London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Florida: +1 239 689 1883 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: VINCE FLORES/Avalon
- July 25, 2006: Hugo Boss Celebrates the 2007 Spring/Summer Collections with a party at the Roof Garden in New York City this evening. Among those attending: Ione Skye. Credit: Roger Wong/INFGoff.com Ref: infusny-12 Featuring: Ione Skye Where: New York, New York, United States When: 25 Jul 2006 Credit: Roger Wong/INFGoff.com
- , Los Angeles, CA – 20181010 Los Angeles Premiere of HBO’s ‘Camping’ -PICTURED: Ione Skye -PHOTO by: Media Punch/INSTARimages.com This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact Instar Images LLC for licensing fee and rights information at sales@instarimages.com or call +1 212 414 0207 This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. Instar Images LLC reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded Featuring: Ione Skye Where: Los Angeles, California, United States When: 10 Oct 2018 Credit: Media Punch/INSTARimages.com
Yeah, nothing makes you realize how f-cked up your situation REALLY was quite like having a child that exact same age. It’s heartbreaking to see how young and vulnerable a 16 year old actually is once you have one in front of you.
Kiedis is a gross predator then and now, but if we’re being honest, I was ready for him to be Jerry Seinfeld 38 in this story! Being 24 seems kind of quaint, given his story.
I know this article is about her relationship with Keidis and a 25 year old impregnating a 17 year old but…Ione’s dad is Donovan??? I never knew that!!!!
In one of her first films- the River’s Edge (a wonderful, if sad movie about a working class group of teens/outcasts) she is credited as Ione Skye Leitch- using his last name.
But stopped after that as i believe they were estranged at the time.
I am not normally a celeb memoir person, but, i kind of want to read this one.
Ione’s dad wasn’t great about claiming her. I’ve heard over the years that he put more effort into raising his stepson, who was biologically Brian Jones’ kid, than being with his biological kids. The crazy thing is she looks EXACTLY like her dad. Even Donovan Jr. doesn’t look as much like Donovan Sr.
Speaking from experience, if a girl of 16 looked like an adult in the 80’s and 90’s, she was treated like an adult. Inappropriate advances from men and all. Not saying it was right, it’s just the way things were. There were rock songs about girls being 16 and 17…
Agreed but I’m sure that still stands, right? Like, I’m an old but I bet if we asked the average well-developed 16 year old girl if grown-ass men try to pick her up her answer would be “yes”.
Men are just so gross to teenaged and younger women-SO gross.
I was a young looking 16 year old in the early 90s who could still get youth tickets at the movies. And adult men regularly hit on me. But miss me with it was a different time. Do 13-16 year old girls right now *not* get hit on by adult men?
Is it weird that 30 years ago young women had options their mothers didn’t and now young women have fewer rights than their mothers had? It’s not how timelines are meant to work.
I hope more and more women talk about the choices they made and what having options meant for their lives.
Exactly right. This, and the impending techno-fascist overthrow of our Constitution, is why I’m going to have my kids go to college in other countries.
Say Anything was a seminal movie experience for us ’80s kids. lone Skye was the ultimate It girl – effortlessly cool, stunningly pretty; I felt like I grew up with her. Anthony Kiedis is a predator. That girl was probably love-bombed by him, and adding his addiction to the mix, I can only imagine the hell she went through.
That dirty ole man is still pursuing and daring women young enough to be his granddaughter.
” catching a flying ghost baby with a butterfly net “…sorry, what??? I’m so confused by this.
She thought babies would appear and be dropped from thin air like storks bringing babies home.
Kleides is seen out with very young girls all the time. I think the most recent one I saw anything about was confirmed as like 19-20. He’s 62?
I wish her health and happiness, it would be hard to grow up with everything going on that’s just mentioned in the article.
He’s gross and has always been. It’s driving me crazy that nobody says anything about that guy.
Tale as old as time – “old” being the operative word here. Ugh – yeah – the letches – (I was small and thin and looked underage until I reached 30)
I met her a few times back then. A cool and very sweet girl. I’m glad she’s made such a nice life for herself.
[just flashed on “The Palm Beach Story” (Preston Sturges ~ 1940 – a favorite screwball comedy!) when Claudette Colbert character tells her husband she’ll be okay without him. Something like: “Men? They’re around. They’re always around. Starting when you notice your friends fathers suddenly being arch with you”]
I am shocked you haven’t seen the recent pictures of his arms around his 19
Year old gf. Anthony continues to be scum of the earth.
THIS. People seem to have forgotten about him talking about having sex with a 14 year old girl in his memoir – and he KNEW she was 14.
This man still tries to pick up young women at AA meetings.